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Amy Po-Ching says financial confidence starts with understanding your position, knowing what you own, what you owe and where you want to go financially. Supplied. When Levridge founder and financial adviser Amy Po-Ching stood in front of a room full of women at the Women in Seed Forum in Christchurch last month, the discussion quickly turned from KiwiSaver and investing to women can feel uncomfortable talking about : financial independence. But it’s a conversation worth havin

Glen Thurston speaking at the NZDA conference as part of ongoing conversations around mental health, firearm safety and help-seeking within the hunting community. Supplied. For MentalHunts co-founder Glen Thurston, the conversations around mental health and firearms legislation deeply personal. The father, builder and passionate hunter has spent much of his life navigating depression, burnout and alcohol abuse. Those experiences eventually led him to launch MentalHunts alongs

Kylie Dorr (center) receiving her award for Supreme Winner of the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards at Parliament from NZI’s Christina Chellow (right) and Kylie’s supporter and mother Sandy Dorr (Left). Kylie Dorr admits she was in shock when her name was called as the Supreme Winner of the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards. The owner of Southern Reproductive had already taken out the Emerging Enterprise category at the awards before being named the overall winner at

For years, rural New Zealand has been told to “speak up” and “reach out” when things get tough. But for many people living and working in the country, asking for help is rarely that simple. Isolation, workload pressure, financial stress, relationship strain and the deeply ingrained culture of simply “getting on with it” can all become barriers long before someone ever reaches crisis point. That is where Fiona McCracken believes things need to change. After years working acros

Lynton Downs homestead sits beneath the towering inland Kaikōura ranges, surrounded by mature trees, gardens and rolling farmland. There is a quiet kind of magic about Lynton Downs. Maybe it is the stillness of the hills. The creak of an old homestead staircase. The sight of sheep moving through the paddocks beneath mountain ranges that seem to rise straight out of the earth. Or perhaps it is the feeling that this is a place layered with stories. Built in the 1860s and added

When Anna King entered the NZI Rural Women Business Awards, she did not quite realise the scale of what she was stepping into. A client had suggested she apply, and King, founder of Pilates and movement business AnnaFit, decided to give it a go. “I didn’t even know about the Rural Women Business Awards. It was one of my clients who told me about it,” King says. “When I applied, I actually didn’t realise how big it was. I just thought, that looks really cool, and off I went.”

Emmy Maxwell says Rural Women New Zealand should have consulted members before lodging its submission on the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill. Supplied. Rural Women New Zealand says its opposition to the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill was a board-led advocacy decision, but one rural woman says members should have been consulted before the organisation spoke publicly on their behalf. Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is facing q

Anna Munro (left) Abbey Mackenzie, and Pete Wilkinson bring a country sound to rural stages across Mid Canterbury. The Landgirls are not trying to be a big band. The Mid Canterbury trio, made up of Anna Munro, Abbey Mackenzie and drummer Pete Wilkinson, play the kind of music that fits where they live. Country leaning, harmony driven, and built for rural halls, pubs and paddock gatherings. “It’s definitely got a bit of a country vibe… just songs that people like hearing. It i

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon presents Tom Slee with the FMG Young Farmer of the Year trophy at the Season 58 Grand Final in New Plymouth. Otago Southland dairy farmer Tom Slee has become the third member of his family to win the FMG Young Farmer of the Year title after a dramatic late comeback at the Grand Final in New Plymouth. The reality of winning New Zealand’s most prestigious farming competition had still not fully sunk in for Slee when he returned south. “It’s pret

Canterbury Young Grower of the Year winner Amber Davy (right) with Canterbury Growers Association chair Rob Lindsay. Photo: Supplied Amber Davy may have fallen into the potato industry by accident, but seven years on she has firmly established herself as one of horticulture’s emerging leaders. The 29-year-old Eurogrow quality and field manager has won the 2026 Canterbury Young Grower title after competing against six other contestants at Lincoln University on June 25. Davy wi

Awapiri Station owners Eric and Sally Smith are balancing high country farming with diversification and planning for the next generation. There are easier ways to farm than how Eric and Sally Smith do it at Awapiri Station. But easier isn’t the point. Set deep in the Awatere Valley, Awapiri stretches long and narrow across high country, climbing from valley floor to hilltops where access is often old-school. Here, farming still happens largely on foot, on horseback, or increa

Women working and living on farms across Aotearoa New Zealand are being urged to take part in a national survey researchers hope will help fill a long-standing gap in rural wellbeing data. The Health and Wellbeing of Women in Farming survey is being run by researchers from Massey and Lincoln Universities and is open to women who work and/or live on-farm. Massey University’s Nicky Stanley-Clarke says while rural mental health has become a much more visible issue in recent year

Laura MacDonald says modern homesteading is less about perfection and more about learning practical skills over time. Supplied There is a loaf of fresh bread cooling on the bench, children collecting eggs outside and herbs growing in pots by the door. For many New Zealanders, that kind of life once felt old-fashioned. Now, amid rising food prices and growing interest in slower, simpler living, homesteading is making a comeback. But according to Waikato mum Laura MacDonald of

A harvest from the garden. What began as a small project has become a steady source of food and flowers. There is something quietly powerful about turning a patch of lawn into something that feeds you. Not in a grand, self-sufficient, off-grid kind of way. Just a few raised beds. A handful of herbs. A couple of rows of vegetables. Enough to change how you cook, how you shop, and how you think about food. That is exactly what Holly van Dam has done. Through her growing online

Cheyne Gillooly says young people still want to farm “as much now, if not more than ever”, but are looking for new ways into ownership and modern farming systems. Supplied. As New Zealand heads towards the 2026 general election, New Zealand Young Farmers chief executive Cheyne Gillooly says one of the biggest frustrations for the next generation is not a lack of passion for farming, but a lack of policy that supports them to succeed. Gillooly says young people remain deeply c

Rural Women New Zealand chief executive Sandra Kirby said uncertainty around fuel supply and pricing was creating anxiety for many rural families already dealing with significant transport demands. As New Zealand heads towards the 2026 New Zealand general election, Rural Women New Zealand says rural families are continuing to face growing pressure around cost of living, fuel, isolation and access to basic services. Chief executive Sandra Kirby said many of the issues affecti

A new partnership between Farmlands, Rural Support Trust and digital wellbeing platform ignite is set to make it easier for farmers, growers, farm workers and their families to access mental health and wellbeing support, without leaving the farm gate. Announced at the Rural Industry Leaders Dinner on the opening night of Fieldays 2026, the three-year partnership comes as the Government’s draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026–2036 identifies rural communities as a gr

A red shed sits against the hills near Parnassus (photograph). Bruce Mortimer Bruce Mortimer does not describe his work as rural. But his landscapes will feel familiar to anyone who spends time in open country. Wide horizons, open space, and a single element holding its place against something much larger. It is not farming, but it is the same land farming sits in. Originally from England, and raised in the Netherlands and South Africa, Bruce Mortimer has called New Zealand

No matter which government comes to power after the 2026 New Zealand general election, it may make little difference to farmers if the people speaking on their behalf are not getting it right. That is the view of Groundswell spokesperson Jamie McFadden, who says the biggest issue facing the sector is not just policy, but a growing disconnect between farmers, advocacy groups and government. “The biggest challenge is the disconnect,” McFadden said. “It’s a disconnect from the r

Marty (left) and Ollie Ashby, balancing experience with new approaches as the farm transitions through succession. Marty and Jo Ashby have been farming at Alkington, just out of Fernside, long enough to see the industry change more than once. What sits there now, a 172-hectare milking platform running around 600 cows, didn’t start out that way. Like much of North Canterbury, the turning point came with water. “When irrigation came in through Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd, that w